Through her own choice, failures in Democratic primaries or the verdict of America's general electorate, Hillary Clinton's future White House appearances will be guest-only.

There's an excellent chance Hillary won't run.

A prohibitive favorite, her 2008 campaign ended ignominiously, so the 2016 nomination isn't the certainty Clintonistas pretend -- and a general election would feature detailed reviews of Clinton's spotty near-quarter-century in Washington, the Senate and the State Department, most of it never fully-vetted.

The reception to Hillary's book tour was tepid, and there are unresolved questions about her health and stamina.

Don't forget "dead broke" Hillary's family financial difficulties: "[W]e pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off ...and we've done it through ... hard work."

One wonders, having received millions for $200,000-plus, "hard-work" speaking gigs, will Hillary's greed trump her ambition?

Besides, what rational Democrat wants to clean up after President Barack Obama?

Except by those who possess it, among liberals, great wealth is considered at least suspect, if not fundamentally corrupting, so Hillary cynically pretends to be middle-class to convince them that her financial worries are the same as ordinary Americans.

Obama's "wealthy, out of touch" attack damaged Mitt Romney. Many progressives will react to Hillary Clinton's "poverty" claims as one critic did: "I know of dozens of ridiculously-talented, hard-working people who'll never set foot in a mansion. But Hillary Clinton buys two and weeps."

Estimated between $25 and $50 million -- all from speeches and ghostwritten books -- Hillary's personal wealth is arguably her only accomplishment.

Some progressives actively dislike Hillary: she supported the Iraq war, remains chummy with Wall Street, ran to Obama's right and is tainted by her husband's practical centrism. Hillary's a hard left-liberal, but she's too well-defined by marital association to satisfy many liberal voters.

For example, Clinton embraces the Democrats' "war on women" rhetoric even though she was a central perpetrator of a nasty campaign against women involved with her husband, women Clinton's staff called "sluts" and "trailer trash."

Blaming her spouse's serial philandering on a "great right-wing conspiracy," Hillary wasn't a passive victim of the sex scandal preceding her husband's impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice.

Furthermore, after Obama, Hillary is the most prominent Democrat to promote socialized medicine. She cannot disavow Obamacare, which still has 55 percent disapproval, without calling attention to Hillarycare, her own 1993 scheme to socialize medicine.

As senator, Clinton originated nothing, so liberals remember her Senate tenure only for her pro-Iraq War votes, and, lacking any positive outcomes while at State, everyone remembers her failures.

Hillary's four years as Secretary coincided with a nearly-unprecedented modern breakdown of U.S. foreign policy – only 1979-1980 policies were as feckless.